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The website design accounts for 75% of the credibility of the website. So, if you want a business to look trustworthy, a poor webdesign is a complete no-no. Then how to achieve a well designed website? Well, a Front End Developer does just that. With a large number of businesses opting for going online as a by-product of a COVID-19 world, there seems to be an increasing number of Front end website developer or customer side developer as they call it. If you are a Front End Developer or are thinking of being one, this piece of article is what you need to know. Today we are here, with our list of the 10 Front End Developer Skills that you absolutely need to have. But, let’s take a step back and begin with the basics.

Who Is A Front End Developer?

Front End Development involves developing all the visible features of your website – such as the layouts, the navigations, etc.; and the person who develops these is a Front End Developer. Please don’t get Front End Development confused with Web Designing. Web designing is all about how your website looks; while the actual implementation of the web designs on the web by utilizing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Coding languages is Front End Development. A Front End Developer thus needs considerable coding skills and some others, as mentioned below.

Top 10 Front End Developer Skills You Need To Have Today:

Coding Languages:

The most important perquisite of being a Front End Developer is mastering the three coding languages – HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language communicates with the browser about how the webpage is to be structured. Along with HTML, CSS or Cascading Style Sheets is used for layout and styling of the user interface including the colour, fonts, etc.; thus resulting in the presentation of the page. While JS or JavaScript is a programming language which has a number of functions and features which can be utilized to implement interactive features such as animations, scrolling, audio, video, etc. within your website.

Frameworks:

There are pre-existing CSS frameworks and JavaScript frameworks which are helpful in your coding. Using these frameworks are like giving a kick start at instead of an altogether empty document, you have a code file with CSS or JS within it. Do note that there are various frameworks, which serve for different purposes. Thus, as a skilled Front End Developer, you need to know all the frameworks so that you know how to use them and which will help for display of content or complex user interface, etc.

CSS Pre-processors:

When there are rather big project, the coding takes a considering amount of time. CSS pre-processor such as LESS, Stylus, Sass, etc. work like the frameworks , and makes it easier and flexible. Thus you can put your commands in the preprocessor’s language and then the code can be converted to the original CSS language. A knowledge of these pre-process is one skill which is a no miss.

Responsive Design:

About half of the overall website traffic is generated via mobile phones. Google too has updated that it’ll be going mobile first. Thus, there has been a need to develop websites which can be accessed from mobile as well as desktops and ipads. The screen sizes for all devices are varying and the website needs to adapt its layout accordingly. This is possible due to Responsive Design. You should be skilled in developing websites which have Responsive Design.

Developer Tools:

Websites can be accessed by the users through web browser only. All the web browsers are equipped with developer tools which have a JS console and inspector. Thus, these tools let you to test and adapt your webpages from the browser itself.

Web Performance:

Google suggests your website should not take more than 3 seconds to load. And while minimum pageloading time is an important aspect of technical SEO, not all websites are able to achieve the set standard of Google. Automation tools and Programs including Gulp and Grunt enables minifying of CSS and JS i.e. reducing the characters within codes without affecting its function, optimizing and scaling of images, etc. You need to posses the skills of so as to improve your web performance.

Testing And Debugging:

Bugs are a part of the web development process. A well skilled Front End Website Developer should absolutely posses the skills of testing for bugs while the  project is being developed and also after it is completely developed. There are various methods of testing such as unit testing, functional testing, etc. Also, you need to have skill about using Programs such as Jasmine and Mocha which are testing frameworks, helping you to get your testing done at speed and simplicity.

Version Control:

Version control lets you track and control the changes you make to the source code. This enables you erase your recent work and go back to the version you had prepared previously. It comes in handy when something goes wrong, so that you can control your previous versions and find what is wrong instead of starting from scratch again. This skill is a must have as it will save much of your time.

Command Line:

Graphic User Interface or GUI is an user interface which includes Graphical representation such as buttons, icons, etc. The interaction takes place through these graphical representations as opposed to text or command based communication. GUIs are rather handy in website development too. However, when it comes to an all purpose GUI, there are some restrictions and limitations, which may require you to open a terminal on your computer and type in command lines to get the desired results. This is one skill you need to be equipped with.

Soft Skills:

Written as well as verbal communication skills are a necessary for even a Front End Developer, you should also possess the ability to do teamwork.

These were our list of the Front End Developer Skills that any Front End Developer needs to posses so as to be hired by a well good company. Do remember that as with any other technical work, there are constant updates in the technology, and you need to keep yourself up-to-date!